This book is a puzzle to me - it is a roller coaster memoir of the life of a "poor little rich girl" from London who travels the world and befriends and beds many celebrities during the swinging sixties. It is a puzzle because it is ghost written and yet the detail (including very explicit, X-rated content) contributes and detracts from her story. At times, it felt like she is an incredibly unreliable narrator of her own story - including references to quoting from Thomas Hardy's book "Tess of D'Ubervilles" for no reason to Roman Polanski at a party (who of course later makes a film based on this). Or her boyfriend, Nigel, taking the then-sculptor only Robert Mapplethorpe out in NYC because Nigel wanted to take photographs - implication that Nigel got Robert interested in photography? In a memoir, to make it more believable to me, is a simple phrase "I don't know if I influenced their art or not, but I like to think so." or something to that effect. As a result, in my mind, I almost had to consider this to be a novel in order to buy into it. The writing is good - I did get a sense of the context and time period and different personalities throughout. But I do have to say -- the real interest to me is the trials and tribulations faced by the ghost writer - Richard Perceval Graves. His postscript and what he dealt with to get this book published with such a difficult semi-cooperative subject is really interesting to me. I would like to see him write a book about being a ghost-writer. Now that would be a really interesting book.

I was vaguely aware of Nicky Samuel before requesting this book. I was intrigued and interested in learning more. Richard Perceval Graves did not disappoint. Written with intimacy and in a conversational way, Nicky is revealing her world, thoughts, places and experiences.
Nicky, a child of privilege takes the reader on a ride through London in the period tagged as the ‘swinging sixties’. She was beautiful and on a search for a slice of happiness, that missing link, so longed for. Nicky married artist and ‘Granny Takes A Trip’ owner Nigel Waymouth and later jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane. As a teenager she worked for Yoko Ono (pre-Lennon), mixed with Warhol, the Jaggers, the Stones, Anita Pallenberg, to name a few. Amidst the glitter were numerous sexual liaisons, addictions and an often tunneling darkness.
A well crafted, interesting and much recommended read with thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

This was fascinating for the access Nicky Samuel had to the movers and shakers of the Sixties and Seventies, but I found it to be a troubling story about a troubled girl who didn't get the support and love she needed as a child and who consequently became a troubled woman who so often looked to external things to stem the darkness within her. Her wealth and privilege gave her access to a world that, for all its glitter and glamour was incredibly dark and often very messed up. I found this book rather upsetting because at its foundation is abuse, coercion and manipulation and the fact that it was happening in a world where you could rub shoulders with Andy Warhol and the Rolling Stones doesn't make it any less upsetting.

Let me preface things by stating that I had no idea who Nicky Samuel was until I read this book. When I first skimmed the book details, they immediately intrigued me; the setting of England, the sixties, moving in moneyed circles, mingling with celebrity elites and royalty...right up my alley.

This memoir/biography was written by a ghostwriter who did a fantastic job. The book rings with the sheer authenticity of Nicky telling her story. It's the kind of book I've been reading a lot of lately- that of a young lady growing up in a family of privilege, but never really finding happiness. A plethora of sexual encounters- too many to mention- described in explicit, graphic detail. Gravitating towards all the wrong men and growing bored/detached from the honorable ones. As a nepo baby, there is no need to work for a living or find purpose in life. Just go on endless vacations, have and attend parties, shop, buy homes, take drugs, etc.

At the age of 16 she left school and her first "job" was working for Yoko Ono! This was when Yoko was in London and still married to husband Anthony Cox (and also the beginning of her affair with John Lennon). Nicky was married to artist Nigel Waymouth and later to famous jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane. She also rubbed elbows with Andy Warhol, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and scores of other rich and famous.

This was a deep dive into swinging sixties London; to be a voyeur to a life that few get to experience- one of extremes.

Thank you to the publisher Troubador for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.